Is there locational damage in Skyrim?

Solution 1:

This was easy enough to test.

I equipped a weak hunting bow (I'm an archer so I'd probably 1 shot any normal npc with my usual bow), and found the nearest NPC that had no helmet on (just on the off chance that helmets can prevent head shots for some reason.)

I used getav health to read the NPC's health for every shot.

Bullseye!

She took 79 damage regardless where I hit her, so no, there's no extra damage for headshots.

My tested locations:

• Nose
• Hand
• Feet
• Stomach

Solution 2:

No. Skyrim has no concept of location-amplified damage.

You can decapitate with your attacks in some cases, but such effects are not triggered by preferentially attacking the head.

Solution 3:

No, but since Skyrim is using a modified version of Gamebryo which was used in Oblivion, Fallout, New Vegas, the vats system from the Fallout series is still in place and it may be possible with modifications to implement location specific damage.